This is Lauren,(Callee's sister).  Just to let you know that she didn't email this week.  My mom thinks she had a Zone Conference.  Hopefully, we will get an email next week.
        Lauren

Hi Mom,

  How are you doing? I'm not being transferred and neither is Sister Taylor. We are so excited to being staying in Hampden. There is so much work for us to do here. Yesterday for Father's Day we were able to go to a member's house for dinner. She is single lady and she has two daughters. It was fun to spend some time with them and to get to know them. I was thinking about Dad a lot yesterday but it was a great day! I did get your picture of the chairs and table!! It is adorable! I hope you get the air condtioner fixed.

  President Wilkey told us about the girl that lost her brother that is going to be coming to our mission. I asked President Wilkey for her address so I could write her a note. I sent if off last week. President Wilkey has now asked all of the sisters in our mission to write her a little note. I hope that helps her. She is supposed to be coming to our mission in July. I can't believe that it is almost July!! Time has been flying by!!!

  This week has been busy! We taught the Plan of Salvation to Kyong and she loved it!!! She mentioned that it totally makes sense to her. She mentioned that the Catholic church never talks about the pre-earth life and the Spirit World. She lost her husband many years ago and we taught her that she could see him again and be with him forever. She started to get emotional. She really wants to do what God wants her to do. She came to church yesterday and she really liked it. She is really wanting to learn. She is an amazing lady!! We also taught a man and his daughter this week about the Restoration and authority. At the beginning of the lesson he was kind of skeptical about what we were saying but by the end he was really pondering what we were teaching him. I love watching the change in people's faces when they are really pondering what is being taught.

  This week is the Wilkey's last week here. I wish you could find out when their homecoming talk is so you could go to it. They are from Lehi. It is going to be a big adjustment getting another mission president but I know that President and Sister Stoker will be wonderful as well. President Wilkey has asked us to pray for the Stokers to help them adjust and feel comfortable here.

 I have been studying a lot about how the Spirit works in our lives. It is amazing how often the Spirit is working through us and we don't even know it. The Spirit works through us in many different ways. There is a wonderful chart on pages 96-97 in Preach My Gospel. It has a lot of wonderful scriptures and how the Spirit communicates to us.  The Spirit is essential for teaching and for understanding. What a blessing the Spirit is. The Spirit can give us the promptings we need and give us the comfort that we are looking for. The Lord loves us so much that we are promised to have the Holy Ghost with us always if we are obedient. What are some things we can do to remain worthy of the Spirit???

  The Church is true!! God loves us! Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. Thomas S. Monson is our Prophet on the earth today. I love you!!! Have a great week!! You are in my thoughts and prayers!!

  Love,

    Sister Griffin

The picture is of my district!! The Elders are Elder Dudley, Elder Phillips, Elder Rogers, and Elder Hill. My district is awesome!!

Hi Mom,

  How are you? The storms actually weren't too bad. We were out of power for like a minute but we weren't out of power for very long. If you haven't sent the package yet. I will need contacts soon. I have two pair left but I figured since you were sending a package you could probably send them now. This week was a great week! We had zone interviews with President Wilkey this week. These were his last ones before he goes home. It was awesome!! President Wilkey told me that he has one problem with me. His problem with me is that he won't be here to see me end my mission. He is so funny! We met with Sister Wilkey as Sisters in our Zone. It was awesome! She talked to us about how to be a successful missionary. The Wilkeys are amazing!! I handled June 6 ok. I talked to my companion about Dad for a little bit. It was good to be able to talk about him. I'm so glad you were able to go out to dinner with everyone! Sister Taylor says hi.

  We found two more people to teach this week. It is a father and a daughter. They have lost of questions about everything. They were asking where our church was and they also asked about Joseph Smith. We are so excited to teach them again this week!! The daughter told us they were looking for a religion to go to because they know that going to church will help them get closer to God. Our other two investigators are great! Kyong called us on Friday and told us that she needed a bigger copy of the Book of Mormon because the small print one was hurting her eyes. Then she told us that she was already in Alma. She had just started reading the Book of Mormon on Thursday. Her desire to know if the Gospel is true is very strong. She is so excited to learn more. I wasn't there for the lesson with our other investigator because I was gone on exchanges. The exchanges were fun. I was with Sister Westling. She is from Utah. It was a really fun exchange. I love exchanges because I learn so much!!

  The Family home evening sounds like a lot of fun!! Thank you so much for the pictures!!! I love seeing the family! I haven't taken very many pictures lately. I'll try to take more in the next week. Transfers are June 18th. We aren't sure if they are going to affect us or not. There are 17 sisters coming this next transfer. It sounds like there are going to be lots of changes. More areas are going to be opening up. It is wonderful to be part of this wave of missionaries.

  I have been thinking this week how important the First Vision is. It is the thing that sets us apart from the rest of the world. That vision has brought about everything that we know and believe. The First Vision is something that we teach so often we must teach it with conviction and feeling every time we teach. I know that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. I know that the Church is true. I know that God is in the details of our lives. Have a great week!!! I love you!! You are in my thoughts and prayers!!

  Love,

   Sister Griffin

Hi Mom!!

 How are you? It sounds like you had a really busy week! I can't take pictures with the phone. It is against mission rules to use the camera setting. That's wonderful that you were able to see more of the family at a joyous occasion rather than a sad one. Who baptized Brooks? Did Uncle Ben baptize him? Thank you for mentioning to Nancy about the checks. Did you get the picture from Sister Wilcox. We had ribs over at her house last Monday and she has all the missionaries take a picture of all the rib bones. They made me put the sauce on my face to look more messy. It was pretty funny!! I haven't gotten a raincoat yet. I'm not sure if I'm going to get one.

  This week has been great!!! We have two investigators now! We were visiting a less active and she brought a friend over to learn more about the gospel and we are going to see her this week. She seems pretty excited to learn. We also met a lady from Korea. Her name is Kyong. She has lived the the United States for a long time but she still has a very thick Korean accent. She really wants to get on the path that the Lord wants her to be on. She is hoping that we can help her. I know we can help her! Her husband passed away around 6 years ago. She misses him a lot and wants to know that she can see him again. She is excited to meet with us and read the Book of Mormon. We are going to see her again this week! I love being able to help people know how to come to Christ!!

  The weather has been so hot here and humid. We went from like the 60s to 90s in 24 hours. Everyone told us that it is unusual for Maine to get that hot now. Ususally this weather doesn't come until August. It was almost 90 degrees in our apartment and we didn't have a fan. We contacted a member in our ward to see if she had a fan left over from her yard sale that we could buy from her. Within 24 hours we had three fans and someone in the ward had an air conditioner for us. The members are great here!! They are always so willing to help us. The other day we were walking to get our car to drive to an appointment and it started to down pour!! When we left it was very sunny and hot and so we didn't take our umbrellas. We were about 10 or 15 minutes away from the car and the rain came down really hard. We got so wet. We had to change our clothes before we went to our next appointment. The rain felt really good. It cooled us off really fast! We had a stake service project this past week. There were over 230 people that showed up. We cleaned up the rivers and streams in Bangor. It was really awesome!!
 This week I've noticed the importance being obedient. I know that because Sister Taylor and I have been working hard and doing what the Lord has asked us to do we are starting to find those who are wanting to learn about the Gospel. Obedience definitely brings blessings and miracles. I know that the Lord blesses us when we do what He has commanded us to do.

 Mom, I will be praying for you and thinking about you a lot this week. I know that because of the Gospel our family can be together forever. What a blessing to have that knowledge! I love you Mom!!!! Have a great week!! 

  Love,

   Sister Griffin